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Entries for our 2009 Montréal Masters 1000 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em competition are now open. You can access the entry form via http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html and you will find a link to the latest overall rankings there too.

Qualifiers will be placed by the end of Sunday UK time.

DEADLINE - MONDAY 15.00 GMT / 11.00 US EDT

BOTB ON TWITTER

BOTB is now on twitter - as an experiment, we'll be using it to post short items that people need to know about quickly, e.g. when the draw with qualifiers placed is available, any late withdrawals we happen to find out about, some quick updates on day 1 before all the results pages are ready, announcements that we need to get back to teams quickly and so on, though there won't be more than a handful of posts each day. Feel free to follow us at http://twitter.com/botb1 and you'll probably be one of the first to know what's going on!

he Roland Garros 'Battle of the Boards' pick 'em contest is now open for entries at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html - qualifiers have already been placed in the draw.

As last year, 16 main draw matches are due to be played this weekend, so entries will close at 09.00 GMT (10 am UK / 11.00 CET / 5 am US EDT) on SUNDAY.

With a Sunday deadline, I doubt we will hit the 500 entrant limit this time, but there is an outside chance that we might. If we do, anyone in the top 250 of the overall rankings after Rome will get in as long as they enter before the deadline, but other places will be filled on a first-come first-served basis. So, if you are not in the top 250, I would suggest not leaving it until the very last minute to enter.

There are links to the overall rankings, entries processed so far (which will be updated every few hours) and a more detailed explanation of how the 500 entrant limit would work if it was needed at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html.

Roland Garros BOTB history

Roland Garros BOTB had 43 entries in 2007, when the Shedman (BT) won it (as with me winning Rome that year, something tells me that's never going to happen again!) with goldfish (BT) in 2nd, kayce (AM) in 3rd and AM.com winning the team competition, which was still just AM v BT at that stage.

In 2008, it had nearly eight times as many entrants (340) and hebegeebee (IN), the only entrant who picked Monfils to reach the semis, won by some distance, with Linda (AM) 2nd and Jack (TA) 3rd.

TAT won the teams league and finished 3rd in the KO on their debut and of course they have just completed their first year as a BOTB team by taking over the no. 1 spot in the overall rankings. The team they dislodged from the top slot, Team CC, finished 2nd in the teams league at RG 2008 and won the KO. This means that two of the top three teams in the overall rankings have masses of points to defend, which should makes things even more interesting! The Dammitaires finished 3rd last time.

Overall rankings

If you missed them at the time, the overall team and individual rankings after Rome can be found here - note that the points for both MC 2008 and Rome 2008 came off after Rome 2009 since we dropped MC this year, it no longer being a mandatory ATP event.

The MIAMI MASTERS 1000 'BATTLE OF THE BOARDS' PICK 'EM contest is now open for entries at http://www.britishtennis.net/Competitions.html

Qualifiers will be placed at about 22.00 GMT (6 pm US EDT) on Tuesday, but you are welcome to enter before that if you need to, as long as you don't mind picking matches involving qualifiers 'blind'.

Entries will close at 14.00 GMT (10 pm US EDT) on Wednesday.

As usual, if anyone would like to encourage potential new team members by telling them how much fun these competitions are, please go ahead.

Good luck!

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Advance notice - schedule for the rest of the year

The next BOTB pick 'em after Miami will be for the Rome Masters 1000. We have decided to drop Monte Carlo from the pick 'em calendar this year now that it is not a mandatory event any more. We have never run a pick 'em for the last clay court Masters event before RG, so we will not do Madrid either.

N.B. 2008 MC and Rome points will come off after Rome 2009 and players will continue to count their best 7 scores over the previous 12 months, so with points for slams continuing to be available to count twice, it will become best 7 from up to 13 scores instead of best 7 from up to 14.

However, the main reason for cutting the number of events we run pick 'ems for by one is to keep them fresh. As well as the teams comp and the different scoring and ranking systems, one of the main things that makes our pick 'ems different from the ATP bracket challenge is the way they generate so much discussion on many of the forums taking part and it was noticeable that a bit of pick 'em 'fatigue' set in last year after a run of virtually back-to-back contests, not just among the organisers (though that is obviously a big issue too!) but also among the entrants.

I think the calendar that follows gives us a good spread of competitions through the year. It certainly gives us a more manageable workload so that we can do each competition justice with reports and so on. Also, since there will now be at least two free weeks between each competition, we hope it will leave most of you refreshed and eager to take part each time a new contest comes around! If 9 pick 'ems (covering 14 weeks) per year is not enough for you, there's always the ATP Bracket Challenge to keep you going!

Jan 19-Feb 01 : AUSTRALIAN OPEN (slam - points can be counted twice in your best 7)

Mar 25-Apr 06 : Miami

(no pick 'em for the Monte Carlo Masters, which is now a non-mandatory tournament)